On Friday April 27thThe Foundation for Hispanic Education (TFHE), San Jose City College and Silicon Valley Latino presented the first College Declaration Day focused on TFHE schools, Latino College Preparatory Academy (LCPA) and Luis Valdez Leadership Academy (LVLA), where 23 seniors declared their college selections.

The College Declaration Day is an opportunity for students to announce their college choices in a format similar to Collegiate Declaration Days presented by sports network channels and popular on social media. Only this event celebrates academic achievement, not touchdowns. Unlike highly recruited Football players, these students have been accepted to notable universities on academic, civic merit and Ganas. It’s our mission at Silicon Valley Latino to ensure these academic honorees are celebrated by our local community through this special event and that they are featured through our various platforms so that our online community may also celebrate them and take pride in their achievements.

With destinations across the country ranging from The University of Pennsylvania to UCLA, from Duke University to UC Berkeley, students from Luis Valdez Leadership Academy and Latino College Preparatory Academy are embarking on the opportunities of a lifetime. Many of these students will be the first in their family to go to college and for them and their families this is truly a significant event as many of them could not imagine such a day four years ago at their middle school graduations.

Four years of effort and focused determination have led these students on this illustrious path. The joy and sense of achievement was palatable that evening.

Dry eyes? Not many. Master of Ceremonies Jeff Camarillo (LVLA) and Jesus Rios (LCPA) delivered such eloquent and memorable remarks on each recognized student. Sharing stories first hand of trials and tribulations, hope and encouragement, laughter and tears, but most of all joy. The pure joy of their realizing the passion of each student’s path. Basking in the celebration of this very important milestone in their own professional lives and the lives of the students they have grown to bond and love these past four years.

As each student addressed the audience, you could really feel the sense of pride shared with their friends, family and community who had gathered to share in this exciting event. Speeches delivered by students gave recognition to the people who had supported them on their journeys. Students gave thanks, but more importantly shared the promise of one day giving back, just as they have been given.

This past week we delivered another successful Inspire Higher Panel presentation at the San Jose City College Milpitas Extension. With over 100 students in attendance, it was standing room only.

Silicon Valley Latino’s Inspire Higher Initiative engages numerous successful and inspiring Latino professionals. We ask them to share their journeys primarily through “The Inspire Higher Tour” – a high touch/high impact panel of diverse Latino professionals that visit schools with predominantly Latino students. Our end goal is to inspire Latino youth throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and expose them to exciting and rewarding careers in STEAM.

Through the Inspire Higher Program, we Inspire, Impact and Ignite our youth to aspire beyond the dreams they’ve previously had. Through this special program, we have sparked the interest and dreams of hundreds of youth over the last few years and we continue to build on this program through key strategic public/private partnerships.

They all shared their life’s journeys in a very open, honest, authentic and inspiring manner. We want to thank San Jose City College Milpitas Extension, once again for sponsoring and presenting another exceptional panel.

Special thanks to MUSD Superintendent Jordan and her team for collaborating with us in making today’s Inspire Higher program a truly impactful event for our youth!

Enjoy the video and photos from this very successful event!

Inspire Higher Panel at SJCC Milpitas Extension

If you are interested in bringing our Inspire Higher program to your school please reach us at info@svlatino.com

On Wednesday, March 21st the Latino Leaders Network (LLN), a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing leaders together, convened its 53rd Latino Leaders Luncheon Series event to honor Maria Echaveste with the Eagle Leadership Award. Nearly 300 local San Jose/Silicon Valley leaders were in attendance, including guest speakers Mayor Sam Liccardo of San Jose and Ron Gonzales, President, and CEO of the Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley.

Maria Echaveste is the Policy and Program Development Director at the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy. Echaveste joined University of California Berkeley School of Law as a Lecturer. She previously co-founded a strategic and policy consulting group, serving as a senior White House and U.S. Department of Labor official. From 1998 to 2001, she served as assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff to President Bill Clinton. Among her responsibilities in this role was overseeing issues relating to Mexico and Latin America. She has worked as a community leader and corporate attorney. She is also a Senior Fellow with the Law School’s Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity, and Diversity.

“We were proud to honor Maria Echaveste with the Eagle Leadership Award for her outstanding service to our community,” said Mickey Ibarra, Founder, and Chairman of the Latino Leaders Network. “I was proud to work alongside Maria at The White House for President Clinton and the American people. Her powerful personal story inspires us to dream big, work hard, and lead by example.”

Mickey Ibarra, book co-editor, also introduced his new book featuring the powerful personal stories of national Latino leaders, Latino Leaders Speak: Personal Stories of Struggle and Triumph.

“Our Latino community has role models, inspiring heroes, and outstanding leaders,” said Mr. Ibarra. “Their stories need to be told. Readers of this book will be inspired to dream big, get prepared and get ready to lead.”

LLN hosts six annual events throughout the country honoring prominent Latino leaders. The book features 33 keynote addresses delivered at the Latino Leaders Luncheon Series by leaders from a wide variety of occupations, including government, sports, entertainment, education, journalism and more.

Silicon Valley Latino founder and CEO, Alex Ontiveros, was delighted to have been present for this special event as well as to see many SVL Cultura Ambassadors and SVL Honorees in attendance. We look forward to attending and supporting future Latino Leaders Network events in the future” said Ontiveros.

On January 27th San Jose City College & Silicon Valley Latino hosted a fantastic presentation Personal Branding by Mr. Oscar Garcia. He explained strategies on how to build and maintain your personal brand.

Oscar Garcia has a unique background with over 10 years of technology and nonprofit management experience. Oscar is the Founder & Chief Engagement Officer of Aspira, a community relations, economic development and training firm that empowers, engages and educates its clients. Oscar’s career journey includes business development roles at five startups, co-founding a nonprofit, Chamber President & CEO, TV host of Silicon Valley Business and Community Relations Manager at LinkedIn.

He has received various prestigious awards recognizing his leadership and community work, including the La Familia Award from the Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley, the NFL Hispanic Heritage Award from the San Francisco 49ers, and was nominated for Chamber Executive of the Year for the Western Association of Chamber Executives, recognizing his successful and innovative efforts to strengthen the bonds between businesses, community, nonprofits and education in Silicon Valley. As Chief Engagement Officer, his goal is to empower and engage others so they perform at their peak in order to achieve optimal results.

BeVisible Brings Together Bay Area Latinx Professionals for a Holiday Meet Up!

BeVisible brought the Holiday Latinxmagic spirit to the Bay Area with their first San Francisco meetup on December 13th. Over 60 Latinx professionals and friends gathered at Alma Cocina in San Francisco for drinks, socializing, and community building with the purpose to propel LatinX in the workplace.

The evening started out with mingling and introductions. Guest enjoyed delicious appetizers and sangria from Alma Cocina, a new Latin American/Peruvian cuisine restaurant in San Francisco. All around, Latinx professionals across the innovation sector, students, and trailblazers shared their passions and career interests. Members came together to link up to promote and uplift each other by growing their network to connect with new job opportunities and recruiters seeking mission-driven Latinx professionals of the BeVisible community.

“It was inspiring to witness the community we have built all these years and to see Latinx uniting and gaining increasing access to the networks that feed the innovation economy” is how BeVisible’s CEO and co-founder of the platform that connects Latinx to inspiring peers and job opportunities with forward-thinking organizations.

Special guest and BeVisible San Francisco Member, Marcela Davison Aviles, shared her experience working as the lead cultural consultant on the film of the season, Coco.

Marcela emphasized the importance of telling authentic stories by and from the comunidad and harnessing the power of the Latinx community.

Throughout the evening members were excited to share their career journeys, interests, and future goals.

“BeVisible provided a space for us to come together and build community as Latinxs on a personal and professional level. There was a buzz of excitement in the air, one you feel when you truly feel at home” states Karen Lazcano, BeVisible’s Ambassador

About BeVisible

BeVisible is on a mission to connect Latinx to opportunity to propel their careers powered by the strength of community to build and thrive together. BeVisible launched BeVisible’s Job portal and partnered up with organizations doing remarkable work that are looking for great LatinX talent to power their company mission. Get connected by joining the community of LatinX changemakers on www.bevisible.soy

Once again Silicon Valley Latino is proud to shine the spotlight on stellar Latinos leading the way, this time however, it’s done through a strategic partnership with San Jose City College and the focus is on the next generation of emerging leaders.

On August 23rd, San Jose City College and Silicon Valley Latino collaborated in producing the inaugural “College Declaration Day” where eight honorees were featured and celebrated for their academic achievements. Our community, which included parents, students, family members, educators and Cultura Ambassadors, gathered at the new San Jose City College Milpitas Extension to pay tribute to eight exceptional high school seniors as they took their first steps into pursuing a college degree.

The festivities commenced with welcome and opening remarks by Alex Ontiveros, founder of Silicon Valley Latino. He then introduced Jorge Escobar, Vice President of San Jose City College, who delivered passionate and encouraging remarks to our College Declaration Day inaugural cohort. The enthusiasm continued as Adam Mendoza, Vice President of Marketing for Silicon Valley Latino introduced the evening’s master of ceremonies, Cultura Ambassador and serial entrepreneur, Nancy Rosales. Nancy introduced each honoree by reading their inspiring bios and announcing which school they are attending this fall. After each introduction, each honoree delivered heartwarming remarks of gratitude and appreciation for all who helped along their academic journey. They also declared that they give their best effort as they start the collegiate journeys and that they will find a way to give back to their community upon their graduations. The event was also streamed via Facebook Live in an effort to reach audiences beyond Silicon Valley, in fact, the live-stream reached over 6,300 people and had just under 2,000 views. The other goal in streaming the event was to share these stories of commitment and perseverance in an effort to inspire others in our communities, especially young girls and boys so they could also see themselves as successful scholars entering the college of their choice. We are also optimistic that this will be the first of many College Declaration Day events and that the number of academic honorees will grow each year.

The inaugural College Declaration Day cohort includes:

Krista Arellano – Yale University

Daniela Cervantes – University of California at Berkeley

Gissel Neri Corcoles – Cal Poly San Luis Obispo

Apolinar De Jesus – University of California at Santa Barbara

Evelyn Lazaro-Ruiz – Vassar College

Yulissa Martin-Covarrubias – University of California at Berkeley

Anthony Bernard Tapiz – California State University at Monterey Bay

Josalyne Torres-Baez – University of California at Davis

We wish them all the best as they enter their freshmen year and look forward to providing our audiences with updates throughout their first year.

Lastly, we would like to give special thanks to Cultura Ambassador and education champion, Jorge Escobar, for seeing the vision of College Declaration Day and partnering with Silicon Valley Latino in producing this special event. We also want to offer a special acknowledgment to, Cultura Ambassador, Ileana Ortega Brunetti of Ceiba Public Schools for her assistance with the nomination process. Additionally, we want to thank San Jose City College and the Milpitas Extension Team including Michael Mooney, Director of the Milpitas Extension along with all our families, educators and Cultura Ambassadors that came out to support this special event.

We are delighted to post our first #defendDACA video featuring Manuel Romero’s “Alza La Mano” song as well as some photos from some of our Cultura Ambassadors, City of San Jose Council Members and community advocates.

We would also ask you to save the date for our “Moving beyond DACA” Fireside Chat. We are producing this special event in partnership with San Jose City College at their new Milpitas Extension the morning of November 4th from 10AM – noon. We look forward to engaging you all in a conversation and identifying actionable steps towards ensuring fair policies for our immigrant communities.

For the past 28 years, the San José Jazz Summer Fest has brought a vibrant and exciting music festival to the San José community. What started out as a small party with a rather limited budget and mostly conventional jazz acts has now evolved into one of the most anticipated and comprehensive three-day jazz festivals going. One of the principal collaborators in shepherding the growth of the festival over the past thirteen years has been Board Chair Emeritus Arturo Riera, also known as Mr. Latin Jazz.

Riera is and has been a champion in the Latin Jazz movement for what seems to be a life time and that is what attracted him to San José Jazz over thirteen years ago. During his tenure with SJZ, he has been the Latin Curator of the San Jose Jazz Summer Fest. Through this role, he has spearheaded the growth of the number of Latin acts to twenty throughout the festival. You’ll be hard pressed to find another festival that offers close to twenty diverse and exciting acts in a three-day span. Maestro Riera has been active in cultivating key relationships for SJZ as well as securing key grants with the Packard and Castellano Family Foundations. His reach and influence have been an integral part of San José Jazz. So, if you see Mr. Latin Jazz this weekend at Summer Fest you may want to say “thanks” for his contributions the festival as this appears to be his last year with SJZ.

Silicon Valley Latino and our community also appreciates the tireless work the San José Jazz family (SJZ Board, staff and volunteers) dedicates to this exceptional festival each year. Additionally, we would also like to thank and acknowledge the contributions from our Silicon Valley Latino Cultura Ambassadors and SVL Honorees such as Tommy Aguilar, Mia Perez and of course the Castellano Family Foundation. We look forward to seeing you this weekend!

If you attend the festival go ahead and tag us (twitter @SVLatino/Instagram#SVLatino) to have your photos highlighted #SVLatino

This Inspire Higher Tour continues with stops at the Luis Valdez Leadership Academy and Cristo Rey one more time. We were delighted to feature Pepe Gomez, Jess Ruval, Ivan Reyes, Veronica Cedillos, Marcela Antonia Denniston and Herminia Estrella Ojeda during these past two stops. They shared their journeys filled with challenges, failures, lessons learned and successes. The most rewarding aspect of this program is when these youth envision themselves as successful professionals and leaders because journeys shared by our Cultura Ambassadors.

Next up is ACE Charter High School!

#InspireHigherTour

Interested in becoming an SVL Cultura Ambassador? Reach out to us so that we can give you all the details on joining this growing community of professional latin@s. email us info@svlatino.com

SVL Inspire Higher Tour Luis Valdez Leadership Academy

This Inspire Higher Tour continues with stops at the Luis Valdez Leadership Academy and Cristo Rey one more time. We were delighted to feature Pepe Gomez, Jess Ruval, Ivan Reyes, Veronica Cedillos, Marcela Antonia Denniston and Herminia Estrella Ojeda during these past two stops.